Freshwater Springs Preservation in Jejudo: Reinterpretation of Springs as an Ethnological and Environmental Resource

On Jeju Island, there are many freshwater springs because it is a volcanic island with abundant precipitation and rainwater. While springs were once plentiful in the island, due to depletion and urbanization pressures, many of the traditional wood and rock structures and spaces surrounding springs have become severely deteriorated. Until the 1970s springs served as vital community resources for water provisioning for drinking and household use, agriculture and livestock. However, after most springs fell into disuse, hydraulic engineers have maintained Jeju’s springs with a concern for springs with strong flow and good water quality but disregarding human activities such as social, cultural and landscape context in the springs. In this research study, I address the cultural context as well as an environmental value of freshwater springs. In addition, it is necessary for people in Jeju recognize their ethnological identity in studying how their ancestors function spatially in springs and recording the design and shape of original structures which takes into account the historical, cultural and social elements of Jeju in the past. Also, I describe how to categorize various landscaping shapes of springs on Jeju Island through case study

Uncovering the Influence of Household Sociodemographic and Behavioral Characteristics on Summer Water Consumption in the Portland Metropolitan Area

As urban areas continue to expand, sustainable urban water resource management has become an important issue in green and sustainable city planning. Using single-family residential (SFR) household survey, we identified the determinants of household summer daily water consumption from 2000 to 2005 in Portland, Oregon. The multiple regression results show that approximately 41% of variations in SFR water consumption is explained by average building size, household attitude to water conservation, community engagement of household, and presence of native plants in the garden. The multi-level modeling results show that household attitude to water conservation is an important predictor of SFR water consumption within and between neighborhoods, while household mean income is not a good predictor of water consumption at both levels. The findings suggest the roles of community program for efficient urban water resource management. Our results have important implications for sustainable urban water resource management and land use planning as they relate to water use behavior in urban areas

Semileptonic Decays of BcB_c Meson to a P-Wave Charmonium State χc\chi_c or hch_c

The semileptonic decays of meson $B_c$ to a P-wave charmonium state $\chi_c(^3P_J)$ or $h_c(^1P_1)$ are computed. The results show that the decays are sizable so they are accessible in Tevatron and in LHC, especially, with the detectors LHCB and BTeV in the foreseeable future, and of them, the one to the $^1P_1$ charmonium state potentially offers us a novel window to see the unconfirmed $h_c$ particle. In addition, it is pointed out that since the two charmonium radiative decays $\chi_c(^3P_{1,2}) \to J/\psi+\gamma$ have sizable branching ratios, the cascade decays of the concerned decays and the charmonium radiative decays may affect the result of the observing the $B_c$ meson through the semileptonic decays $B_{c}\to {J/\psi}+{l}+\nu_{l}$ substantially.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

In situ structures of the segmented genome and RNA polymerase complex inside a dsRNA virus.

Viruses in the Reoviridae, like the triple-shelled human rotavirus and the single-shelled insect cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (CPV), all package a genome of segmented double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) inside the viral capsid and carry out endogenous messenger RNA synthesis through a transcriptional enzyme complex (TEC). By direct electron-counting cryoelectron microscopy and asymmetric reconstruction, we have determined the organization of the dsRNA genome inside quiescent CPV (q-CPV) and the in situ atomic structures of TEC within CPV in both quiescent and transcribing (t-CPV) states. We show that the ten segmented dsRNAs in CPV are organized with ten TECs in a specific, non-symmetric manner, with each dsRNA segment attached directly to a TEC. The TEC consists of two extensively interacting subunits: an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) and an NTPase VP4. We find that the bracelet domain of RdRP undergoes marked conformational change when q-CPV is converted to t-CPV, leading to formation of the RNA template entry channel and access to the polymerase active site. An amino-terminal helix from each of two subunits of the capsid shell protein (CSP) interacts with VP4 and RdRP. These findings establish the link between sensing of environmental cues by the external proteins and activation of endogenous RNA transcription by the TEC inside the virus